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“Only when decent people band together to act in concert to install proper societal mechanisms and to support one another will we be able to reap the fruits of the marvelous new technologies and avert technologic catastrophes and environmental disasters. Engineers, in particular, need to think carefully about how they can act jointly to help one another to practice their profession properly.” —Unger [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of finance, environmental and management executives to communicate with each other has lead to a number of corporate problems including environmental deterioration, increased expenditures and minimal revenue gains. Despite the government's intensified campaign against environmental contamination, pollution problems have continued to pose serious challenges in managing lead times and allocating financial resources. To address these problems, executives and rank-and-file employees must be taught how to be efficient communicators.

Environmental regulations continuously evolve with the discovery of new information and as environmental problems worsen. Long-lived facilities such as electric power plants would benefit much from proactive environmental investments. However, current environmental programs are perceived to encourage suboptimal compliance strategies and fail to anticipate future environmental risks.

Many electric utilities are undergoing massive restructuring in response to increased domestic competition. In light of such actions, the federal government should reassess its energy regulatory programs to meet the increased emphasis on regional diversity. Studies have shown that each utility's choice of fuel options is largely influenced by its regional resources. Consequently, the federal government should develop a flexible regulatory policy to meet the specific requirements of electric utilities.

US electric utility companies exhibit divergence in their capital stock, which influence the effort of reducing pollutant effusions regionally. A simple system level emissions model is introduced which points out cost-efficient pollution reduction strategies for each region among alternative choices. Solutions vary across regions and pollutants. Policies formulated to lessen environmental effects from power production should be familiar with capacity characteristics.

Regulatory measures alone cannot effectively address the problem of pollutant emissions because numerous factors must be taken into account before an overall measure can be formulated. One solution to this is a systematic perspective with the objective of emissions reduction. Resource planning should integrate supply and demand options, policy perspectives, decision criteria, options targeting current and future capacity and regulatory activities by authorized agencies.

U.S. energy policy suggestions for the Barack Obama administration are provided, including expansion in the generation and use of clean energy, such as solar, biomass and geothermal. Details on energy conversion plans, anti-climate change technologies and strategy to attract energy investments in the country are also discussed.

The perspectives of different countries on energy policy are studied.

Technological changes bring in to focus citizen's obligations towards being informed, engaged and respectful of the general welfare. In other words, the rights and duties of citizenship become rampant, given the new technological innovations.

Energy security has been a rationale for governmental action since many years. The consumption, and the efficiencies in the case of oil, hydrogen, petroleum and electricity in United States are illustrated. The need to save energy resources and to keep them secure is discussed.

Issues such as climate change, national security, social security and resource policy rank high on the agenda of any politician. However, they singularly lack the will and designs to make significant changes because future is indeterminate. By extrapolating past data appropriate policies can be developed. These can be further perfected to accommodate risks by adaptive decision-making. For the purpose, it is essential to be aware of the actual data and the variance from projections continuously.

John Habraken, a well-known architect and educator, has investigated the links between urban design and security, and his findings have provoked both administration and controversy. Habraken shares his ideas, its implications for the practice of architecture, engineering and planning and its relationship between the technology and society.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Robert Solow provides analysts with helpful tips for giving advise to executives. Experts should give supporting rationales to recommendations offered. Solow also suggests using illustrative anecdotes in place of a theory-based, entirely deductive explanation which executives may not understand at all. Confidential experts are urged to correct executives' misconceptions about their working organization to prevent problems from occurring in the workplace due to misunderstanding or misinterpretation of vital facts.

While scientists and policy-makers busy themselves making projections for the 'sustainability' of the future, local community efforts are directed at proving 'sustainability' concepts in their area. As an example, the Sustainable Seattle project has been formed by experts and community members to develop goals and address issues on sustainability.

Many engineers are being laid off in the electric power industry as a result of reorganization and the need to conform with government policies. These engineers belong to some obsolete aspects of the industry or whose tasks can be integrated with other engineers' jobs. Professional organizations such as the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers should extend financial and moral assistance to their fellows in transition. Educational institutions should likewise make available job- and deal-making opportunities to their graduates.

Households consume a significant fraction of total potable water production. Strategies to improve the efficiency of water use tend to emphasize technological interventions to reduce or shift water demand. Behavioral water use reduction strategies can also play an important role, but a flexible framework for exploring the "what-ifs" has not been available. This paper introduces such a framework, presenting an agent-based model of household water-consuming behavior. The model simulates hourly water-using activities of household members within a rich technological and behavioral context, calibrated with appropriate data. Illustrative experiments compare the resulting water usage of U.S. and Dutch households and their associated water-using technologies, different household types (singles, families with children, and retired couples), different water metering regimes, and educational campaigns. All else equal, Dutch and metered households use less water. Retired households use more water because they are more often at home. Water-saving educational campaigns are effective for the part of the population that is receptive. Important interactions among these factors, both technological and behavioral, highlight the value of this framework for integrated analysis of the human-technology-water system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on social implications of technology and efforts to understand them. The author is the President of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer's Society on Social Implications of Technology. He will retire in December 2003. The author says that he enjoyed his tenure serving the society and it's "IEEE Technology and Society Magazine," during difficult times of wealth mass terrorism and an economic slump that hit the electrical engineers and computer science professionals throughout the globe. He concludes by giving the social message to engineers that instead of confining to product or process of their employment they should contribute to the overall human experience and the world.

Analyzes the problems that have been encountered with certain prescriptive applications of systems concepts in the field of public policy. Definition of systems approach; Types of systems; Evolution of the systems approach; Fundamental problems; How to restore credibility and legitimacy.

The author reflects on the opportunities to decide solutions for global warming. He notes that such solutions have been taken action by the U.S. leaders by implementing carbon emission control through the Kyoto Protocol. However, he believes that policy signaling and energy efficiency, as well as basic research, are more appropriate than systematic agenda because the problem of global warming has reached institutional agenda.

Presents information on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). Discussion of the preamble to the IEEE constitution; Background on the magazine of SSIT.

I still have my job and home. Nonetheless this recession has taught me some very direct lessons about economics. Like many of you, I now know to spend more prudently, save more, and avoid taking on too much debt. But what about the big picture? What causes the economic fluctuations that give us our booms and busts? Do we know more about them than we did a century ago, or even three years ago? Here are some of the explanations that economists have given for business cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]